Brian Eno seemingly has a love-hate relationship with Auto-Tune, as the ambient music legend feels that sometimes it just “turns a voice into every other voice”.
Auto-Tune, a plugin launched by Antares in 1997, is known for the way it distinctly processes vocals and adjusts pitch. Though some artists are happy to utilise the tech in their music (to much success), Eno feels it can sometimes contribute to a “super-pasteurised” sound.
During an appearance on BBC Radio 4’s The Infinite Monkey Cage, hosted by Brian Cox and Robin Ince, accompanied by music academics Sam Bennett and Trevor Cox, Eno explains [via MusicRadar]: “It’s really quite unusual to have an actual performance recorded now – and I don’t see anything wrong with that. Nobody would expect every painting to be done on the same day it was started. We’re quite used to the idea in other media that you do something over an extended period of time, and that you can retract steps as well.”
However, he adds, “The problem of all of this is that you end up with super-pasteurised music where everything has been nicely finished and ironed out, and there’s no fibre left at all.” Moving on to how Auto-Tune can sometimes contribute to this, he continues, “I love the sound of Auto-Tune when it’s used for what it can do that human voices can’t do; I hate the sound of it when it just turns a voice into every other voice.”
Auto-Tune can form a significant and intentional part of the musical styles of electronic artists, such as the Brat summer queen herself, Charli xcx – who even previously joked during her SNL show, “I want to take a moment to thank someone who’s been there for me my entire career: Auto-Tune.” Other artists who have utilised its distinctive style are Daft Punk, T-Pain, Travis Scott, and many more.
You can listen to Brian Eno’s full appearance on Infinite Monkey Cage via BBC Sounds.
